On Our Radar: Email Is Not a Communication Tool

Fast Company explores the managerial zen of Jim Benson, who argues that the key to good management is not overburdening employees. (His favorite example of a system gone awry: The chocolate factory episode of “I Love Lucy”). Benson recommends tracking one’s workload in three columns: Ready, Doing, and Done, which gives a visual sense of one’s limited capacity for work, rather than one’s (highly theoretical) unlimited capacity. – Allison Lichter

In an effort to encourage direct communication and cut down on trivial information, one leadership consulting group forbade the use of email for a week, reports Forbes.com Learning as Leadership‘s chief executive argues that email is not a tool for communication, but rather a way to pass the buck. It also distracts leaders from strategic thinking: “We can’t create space for our prefrontal cortex to do deep, creative thinking if our reptilian brain stem is drowning in a sea of tactical e-mails.” – Allison Lichter

And finally….

TheHarvard Business Reviewsheds light on a little-discussed byproduct of work and family stress: scant time for intimate relations. — Rachel Silverman

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